Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Mr. Haskel

I definitely need to put my tinfoil hat on more often, I had no idea that people subscribed to many of the top 20 conspiracies.  This was a great challenge of a prompt, however, I do not know if I did it justice.  Also, as you will see some of the text is in bold and some isn't, it's not an indication of emphasis or lack there of, in relation to the story.  I tried several times to turn off the bold and then in the middle of a paragraph, the bold just turned off by itself.  I'll just chalk it up to one more weird occurrence happening lately with the Blogger site. Enjoy or tell me what you didn't like that always helpful.

 Flash Fiction Friday Challenge

Prompt: Write a story based on a common conspiracy theory
Genre: Any


Glacier in Kenai Fjords park
Photograph taken from the website:  http://www.alaskascenes.com




     "Behold son, you could be lookin' upon one of the last of the great glaciers", his belly shakes with mirth at the thought of all the tinfoil heads in such a tizzy over a little rise in temperature, the last couple years.   Temperatures rose and fell throughout history, sometimes its hot, sometimes its cold, what's the big deal.

     "Mr. Haskel says, that man, is somewhat to blame for all the strange weather we be havin'"

     "Strange?  You call what we been havin' strange?  He gives his ample belly a profound slap, his double chin jiggling, as he chuckles while disdainfully shaking his head side to side.  "Boy, I'll have you know, that when I was your age, we wouldn'a even shrugged at your straaannge weather"

     "Mr. Haskel says, that we're makin' deserts where we had good land and swamps outta woods."

     "Boy!  Ain't nothin' happenin' on this here mudball that ain't already happened before!"

     He lifts his slightly dingy red NASCAR Cap off by the lid, covering the #24 embroidering with his right hand, while scratching the middle of his scalp with the same hand.  "Yeah, but, Mr. Haskel  says, that if we don't act fast, nothin' will ever be the same as it was or used to be."

     "Ever heard of the ice age boy!  Now, do you think them dinosaurs lived during that time? No!  They roamed and romped before then, and everybody know that lizards, likes it hot!"

     "Yeah, but, Mr. Hask..."

     "Mr. Haskel, Mr. Haskel", he whines, his voice dripping with condescension, as his head weaves from side to side momentarily.  "You ask that fancy pants, new teacher of yours, why if its gettin' hotter like he say, why then, do it still snow in the places it always snowed in", "As a matter a fact, you tell that..."

     A loud crack splits the brisk Alaskan air of the Kenai Fjords.  Passengers all over the tour boat stop and gape as the base of the exit glacier separated and slid into the Seward Harbor, raising the boat about 15 feet in the process, threatening to capsize the the tiny vessel and drown a good deal of its patrons.


 

9 comments:

  1. I have to deal with people like on a daily basis, their willful ignorance of science could be the death of us all. Great story!

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  2. I think the rise in global temperature is probably a cyclical thing (it's been going far longer than 'records' have been kept ;-p) but I suppose mankind have done their part to exacerbate the conditions!

    Greatly enjoyed this dialogue - (despite your probs with bold type - who knows what goes on in the mind of Blogger?!) - looking forward to reading more of your work! :-)

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  3. next you'll be telling me that an asteroid actually COULD hit the Earth! A warm piece about a cold place. I liked it.

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  4. Who are we supposed to beleive, anyway? Mr Haskel may have a point! Good story.

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  5. I enjoyed this story. Setting it in Alaska was well done. As a retired Meteorologist who still dabbles I tend to agree with Sue that this is cyclic but we humans are not helping. Good take on the prompt

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  6. Coolness! Based on what I've read on the subject, I have to agree with Sue and Tag, but nice job!

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  7. Nice story! I would echo Sue and Tag... this is cyclic... not to say that humans haven't accelerated the process...

    I like your use of the prompt.

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  8. Well done! To watch the destruction of "one of the last of the great glaciers" would be a particularly sobering activity.

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  9. Are we responsible for what's happening or is it just some type of changes in the Earth itself... Who knows. It's still frightening either way. Maybe this Mr. Haskel really does know what he's talking about. Great use of the prompt! I really enjoyed this.

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